Condensation would be a huge problem. Put a cold glass out on a humid day and it collects a lot of condensation. Now imagine it’s a radiator dripping on your floor
I’ve been in 115°F dry heat in Paso Robles, California. I was comfortable outside until my feet started burning through my shoes. Totally unexpected, being from a place where the common 90°/90% days just knock me out
A few years ago, I had an argument about this with a buddy from Arizona. He was claiming that his 115° heat was worse than my Dallas 105° heat. I pointed out that his was at like 20% humidity, while Dallas was at like 70-80%. He didn’t believe me. Swore up and down that it wasn’t as bad.
Then he flew in to visit for a week, and got heat exhaustion on the second day of his trip. He went to an amusement park when it was like 105° and humid. He originally wanted me to tag along too, since I live in the area. I told him he was crazy, and that he shouldn’t go. He called me a pussy and went. A few hours later, I get a phone call asking me to come pick him up, because he’s so hot that the on-site EMTs don’t trust him to drive back to his hotel.
He hasn’t talked shit about humid heat ever since. Wet bulb thermometers don’t lie.
I worked at a golf course in Florida in college. People would come from much hotter places and start out walking. After 9 holes (or less) they were begging for a cart.
This is the most important answer. Radiators are actually used in combination with heat pumps to cool up to a few degrees Celsius in a non-condensing mode.
The problem is, it isn’t really effective. To really cool down, the radiators would need to get properly cold, but that requires cold water leading to condensation everywhere. In the radiator, but also around the piping in wall cavities, where it will feed mold growth.
A/C’s don’t have this problem because the piping doesn’t get cold and the heat exchanger (inside fan unit) gets very cold and the condensate gets captured in a drip tray and pumped away.
Here in Sweden we are now building out “remote cooling” as the direct translation would be, in addition to the decades old remote heating infrastructure we already have. It’s literally dedicated warm water and cold water lines from a central location in the city (usually a heat plant, often burning garbage, now also from central coolers) to various buildings. They’re properly insulated all the way, and connected to the central heating system in each building.
A building manager could hook it up to their general ventilation / A/C system to increase both heating and cooling capacity, often much more cost effective than using electricity locally for the same amount of capacity. Remote heating is already hooked up to radiators.
there are radiators with fans, blowing air through them to migitate for the condensation. that seems to work. it’s obviously more expensive than normal radiators. but you can buy them and connect them to a heat pump that supports that.
Just pump it outside. There’s no reason to dump a kilowatt or more into a heater strip when removing moisture from the air on a hot day makes our sweat work better, cooling us more efficiently.
I did this exact thing with my boiler forces air system. Piped it in the summer that when watering the lawn, I could have all the child water go thru the condenser. Worked quite well for chill air but the condensation would have destroyed the condenser I am sure and mold would have rapidly been a problem. I could produce liters of water a day easily. Was not viable.
Condensation would be a huge problem. Put a cold glass out on a humid day and it collects a lot of condensation. Now imagine it’s a radiator dripping on your floor
Lots of correct answers here, but this is probably the best.
The real benefit of ac is dehumidifying. That’s the most important part. The cooling is a side effect of that, which does also improve comfort.
There’s a very good reason that people say “but it’s a dry heat”.
I’ve been in 115°F dry heat in Paso Robles, California. I was comfortable outside until my feet started burning through my shoes. Totally unexpected, being from a place where the common 90°/90% days just knock me out
A few years ago, I had an argument about this with a buddy from Arizona. He was claiming that his 115° heat was worse than my Dallas 105° heat. I pointed out that his was at like 20% humidity, while Dallas was at like 70-80%. He didn’t believe me. Swore up and down that it wasn’t as bad.
Then he flew in to visit for a week, and got heat exhaustion on the second day of his trip. He went to an amusement park when it was like 105° and humid. He originally wanted me to tag along too, since I live in the area. I told him he was crazy, and that he shouldn’t go. He called me a pussy and went. A few hours later, I get a phone call asking me to come pick him up, because he’s so hot that the on-site EMTs don’t trust him to drive back to his hotel.
He hasn’t talked shit about humid heat ever since. Wet bulb thermometers don’t lie.
Humidity fucking sucks. Inescapable heat, feels like you’re wrapped in a soggy blanket, bleh. No thanks.
I worked at a golf course in Florida in college. People would come from much hotter places and start out walking. After 9 holes (or less) they were begging for a cart.
This is the most important answer. Radiators are actually used in combination with heat pumps to cool up to a few degrees Celsius in a non-condensing mode.
The problem is, it isn’t really effective. To really cool down, the radiators would need to get properly cold, but that requires cold water leading to condensation everywhere. In the radiator, but also around the piping in wall cavities, where it will feed mold growth.
A/C’s don’t have this problem because the piping doesn’t get cold and the heat exchanger (inside fan unit) gets very cold and the condensate gets captured in a drip tray and pumped away.
Here in Sweden we are now building out “remote cooling” as the direct translation would be, in addition to the decades old remote heating infrastructure we already have. It’s literally dedicated warm water and cold water lines from a central location in the city (usually a heat plant, often burning garbage, now also from central coolers) to various buildings. They’re properly insulated all the way, and connected to the central heating system in each building.
A building manager could hook it up to their general ventilation / A/C system to increase both heating and cooling capacity, often much more cost effective than using electricity locally for the same amount of capacity. Remote heating is already hooked up to radiators.
there are radiators with fans, blowing air through them to migitate for the condensation. that seems to work. it’s obviously more expensive than normal radiators. but you can buy them and connect them to a heat pump that supports that.
Just put a drip tray on the floor with a heating element that evaporates the condensation.
Just pump it outside. There’s no reason to dump a kilowatt or more into a heater strip when removing moisture from the air on a hot day makes our sweat work better, cooling us more efficiently.
Honestly I was just trying to be counterintuitive
I did this exact thing with my boiler forces air system. Piped it in the summer that when watering the lawn, I could have all the child water go thru the condenser. Worked quite well for chill air but the condensation would have destroyed the condenser I am sure and mold would have rapidly been a problem. I could produce liters of water a day easily. Was not viable.